Entry Category: Architects - Starting with W

John Lee Webb was a well-known African-American contractor and philanthropist in Hot Springs (Garland County). John L. Webb was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on September 17, 1877, to the Reverend B. L. Webb, who was a Baptist minister, and his wife, Henrietta Webb. The couple had ten other children. John Webb’s family was not wealthy, so he had to provide for many of his own wants. Webb began studying at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1897 at nineteen years old and was spoken of highly by the wife of Booker T. Washington, founder of the institute. He volunteered for the Spanish-American War, serving from April 25 to August 12, 1898. After the war, he returned to Tuskegee and finished …

A champion of the modern approach to architectural design, John Gilbert Williams was an architect, landscape architect, and the founding faculty member of the Department of Architecture at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County). John G. Williams was born on April 30, 1915, in Van Buren (Crawford County) to Vera Jane Wallace Williams and Charles Bunyan Williams; he had one older brother. He studied engineering at Arkansas Polytechnic College (now Arkansas Tech University) in Russellville (Pope County) before pursuing his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Oklahoma State University). After graduating in 1940, he returned to Russellville to teach drawing and math at Arkansas Polytechnic College for two years. While in Russellville, he …

Gordon Greenfield Wittenberg was a notable Arkansas architect who led one of the state’s premier architecture firms. During his career, he was honored for his architectural accomplishments and for his service to his profession. Also, he was a leader in business, civic, and social organizations in the community. Gordon Wittenberg, the second of three children of George Hyde Wittenberg and Minnie Greenfield Wittenberg, was born in Little Rock (Pulaski County) on August 12, 1921. After attending Little Rock public schools, he attended the School of Engineering at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County) for one year and was president of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He then graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Illinois, …